FAST Blog: Family Homestead

Permaculture, Preparedness, Homesteading & Survival

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Forward Motion

I just want to start by saying how grateful we are for all the comments, messages and words of encouragement that we have received since our last blog post came out last week. It's really helped our overall morale but it's also given us some food for thought too.

To update you a little - if you remember towards the end of my last blog, I spoke about how the bank we are currently working with to get a mortgage have pretty much ghosted us. We were waiting on an urgent review of our house valuation and survey which had been done incorrectly(they'd only valued our land and not the house project. Duh!). When we called on the deadline day, our bank contact wasn't in. She still isn't back at work now, the manager is apparently away until the 17th of December. The person who is working in the bank at the moment told us that the bank have changed their rules and will not be granted mortgages on any new builds and now she is not returning my phone calls. Fantastic. So we haven't heard any more news since then and to be honest, we spent a while feeling pretty much lost and like we couldn't move forward.

But then we changed our minds. Ok, so we don't know what is happening with the bank right now for certain, but it obviously seems like that's not going to work out. So do we give up and mourn our house dreams that never came true? 

Hell no. We find another way. We are warriors. 

Our architect gave us the details of a couple of Eco specific mortgage/lending companies and we have contacted one. Maybe something will come of that, who knows. But we've decided that we're not going to wait around.

The thing is with our self-build is that we don't need all of the money upfront.  There are bits and bobs we can start with. We can get the ball rolling. We might not have a big nest egg of savings, but we do have some money spare each month, and so we've decided that it's best to chip away, little by little. To keep the forward motion going. To feel like we're getting somewhere.

So we've decided to break ground, we're going to dig and pour the foundations. 

We know that our biggest outlay for the house build will be all of the timber we need for the frame. But before we get to that stage we can get the foundations ready, we can build some temporary shelter and toilets, we can plant some trees, we can do some things, at least. Maybe we can run some courses and gather up some money for the timber that way. We've had some ideas of how we can try and get some extra money in. Maybe all this hassle with the banks is a sign that we're not destined to have a mortgage. We need to be flexible and ready to try different things. Who knows. We're gonna figure it out.

But making a start is important, and so, as always, we're gonna jump in with both feet and see where we land. 



  1. Good for you, stay strong and don't let go of those amazing dreams.

  2. I am glad you are finding a "way forward." Why did I only get this post today, Jan 23? Did you delay sending it until you had some good news? Please keep us updated!

    1. seems there was a glitch on blogger, it's gone back to normal now :)

  3. Arh so good to hear from you. All the best with finding your way forwards. It must be frustrating not being able to speak with the original lady at the bank but as you say this could be the better option. I think the programme Jimmy's farm probably BBC, funded each new build / staff etc bit by bit. Without sounding religious - Noah comes to mind atm. He was strong in his belief that he was right 'to build an ark' in the desert. How the odds were against him, (probably not a lot of materials etc), how people laughed and lacked faith in him and his family. But he held on and pressed forward in his goal. I often think of you and how you're doing. Maybe people can help you build whilst learning skills eg - You never know, people volunteer for several weeks to rebuild mountain paths etc in the uk. Sending love and hope for your future. Cathy x

  4. Good grief, to say you have had set backs is a gross under statement!! So glad to hear that you can move forward little by little. Baby steps. Anything to get you out of that damn cave. Have you thought about putting a yurt on your land as you are doing your build? It will all come together eventually because you are all very determined to fulfill your dream. Looking forward to your next update. Take care.




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